Pokémon Go grosses $600 million in record time

Even though Pokemon Go has not been attracting new players at the incredible rate it did when the game first launched, the mobile game is still setting records. According to a new report, from the game's launch in July through September, Pokemon Go brought in $600 million in revenue; no mobile game has ever hit that revenue figure faster. The game reached that revenue figure 2.5 times faster than Candy Crush Saga. The latter reached the $600 million revenue mark 200 days after its launch, compared to 90 days for Pokemon Go.

During the calendar third quarter this year, 45% of total game playing time on Android was spent on Pokemon Go. To show you how dominating that is, the next 19 games added together made up 55% of game playing time for Android users. But the report noted that time spent playing Pokemon Go didn't necessarily take away playing time from other Android games. Many Pokemon Go players do not normally play mobile games.

While Pokemon Go's numbers have faded since the launch, updates coming from game developer Niantic might get these early players to return. Adding more Pokemon, including several of the legendary variety, might do the trick. Keep in mind that like many other mobile games, Pokemon Go is free to download and offers several in-app purchase options to help players achieve certain tasks. In Pokemon Go, PokeCoins can be bought (100 for 99 cents, ranging to 14,500 for $99.99) and used to purchase extra PokeBalls, Incense to attract wild Pokemon to your location for 30 minutes, and Lures to bring an endless supply of pocket monsters near a PokeStop. These are just a few of the items that can be purchased with PokeCoins.

Helping Pokemon Go achieve this record were purchases of lures by several small businesses that would try to attract young consumers by advertising that their stores contained a huge supply of Pokemon just waiting to be caught. These purchases seemed to peak during the summer when school was out, and anecdotal evidence would suggest that these sales have slowed down quite a bit since the start of September.

source: AppAnnie via VentureBeat